A MAJOR German state could become the first in the country to ban the wearing of the burka in certain public areas.

Christian Democrat (CDU) Markus Ulbig, 52, the state’s Interior Minister, is already working on the plan, according to a local report.

Mr Ulbig wants to introduce the ban for all public areas where it is necessary to show your face, which would include courts, schools, universities, registrar offices as well as day-care centres.

He said the move aimed “to make a clear sign and to say that we live in a democracy. This means that in a democracy the face must also be shown.”

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Muslim women next to a car in Germany

To make a clear sign and to say that we live in a democracy. This means that in a democracy the face must also be shown

Interior Minister of Saxony Markus Ulbig, giving his reasons to ban the burka in the state

The move comes after both the CDU and its sister party the Christian Socialists (CSU) adopted the “Berlin Declaration” in August and demanded that Muslim women should not be completely covered in courts, offices schools or on the road.

However, the opposition Social Democratic Party’s parliamentary leader Dirk Panter has rejected such a move.

Previously the CSU party officials in Bavaria had called for a ban in public on the Islamic dress for women.

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A ban on the burka is already being discussed at a national level. In August the federal Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere came out in favour of a ban on the full-face veil in certain areas of public life.

"We unanimously reject the burka," de Maiziere told public TV network ZDF at the time. "It does not fit in our open country."

He added that CDU interior ministers had pledged to draw up legislation that would force people to show their faces where "it is necessary for living together in our society."

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Muslim women in Frankfurt

Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel has indicated in the past that while she was opposed to a blanket ban she accepted that “a fully covered woman has little chance of integrating in Germany.”

The issue of the face veil is due to a topic of discussion at the CDU’s National Assembly this weekend.

Saxony is the sixth most populous state in Germany with just over 4 million people.